Pat Caputo - Been a long time since there has been this much uncertainty about the Detroit Red Wings

Detroit Red Wings center Gustav Nyquist, of Sweden, celebrates his goal against the Boston Bruins with teammates in the second period of a NHL hockey game in Detroit Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

There was a slick pregame show, loud player introductions and a classic Original Six matchup with the Boston Bruins, who knocked the Red Wings out of the playoffs in the opening-round last season.

The game didn’t disappoint. The Red Wings’ 2-1 victory was thrilling and compelling. It remains to be seen if it is foretelling.

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After an off-season of alarming inactivity, yet with possible major changes on the horizon in the not-to-distant future, it has been decades since there has been this much uncertainty surrounding the Red Wings.

Not only does The Hockey News rate the Red Wings’ chances of winning the Stanley Cup championship at just 40-to-1, their projection is Detroit will finish behind the Florida Panthers and not make the playoffs. The Panthers have made the playoffs just one time in 15 seasons and have finished 29th and 30th overall in the NHL the last two seasons.

To open the season, TSN, the Canadian version of ESPN, has the Red Wings at 16th in their power poll – the definition of a bubble team in regard to the playoffs.

It seems like every sentence written or said about the Red Wings’ resident stars, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, contains the word, “aging.” Goalie Jimmy Howard didn’t have a good season in 2013-14, and the handwringing continued Thursday after he allowed an early goal. Yet, Howard responded with several key saves after that, especially during the third period.

“This is our recipe for success,” Howard said. “Most nights, it is going to take 60 minutes of hard work. There are going to be a lot of hard fought games.”

The Red Wings have no right-handed shot on the power play, so they had just one player at the point and two along the wall with the man advantage Thursday.

It’s an invention born out of necessity. It’s difficult to pass the puck back-and-forth along the blue line without a lefty-righty combo. It’s kind of the same concept of why you can’t have a left-handed second baseman in baseball. It would make it nearly impossible to turn the double play.

Hey, it worked Thursday, though. The Red Wings scored the go-ahead goal on the power play as Gustav Nyquist popped in a pretty feed from Darren Helm during the second period.

Then there’s Mike Babcock. The Red Wings’ coach is not signed beyond this year, is a big hero in Canada after leading that hockey-crazy nation to back-to-back gold medal victories in the Olympics, and Toronto’s Randy Carlyle is by far the NHL’s No.1 lame duck coach. Former Red Wing Brendan Shanahan is the new team president of the Maple Leafs. Already replaced were all of Carlyle’s assistant coaches after Toronto collapsed down the stretch and missed the playoffs last spring.

The hockey world is putting two-and-two together, especially since the Red Wings signed Jeff Blashill, the highly successful coach of their top minor league team in Grand Rapids, to a three-year contract.

Babcock has said he wants to stay. General Ken Holland, armed with a long-term contract extension, says the Red Wings want him to stay. But there is no contract extension, nor indication there will be one signed any time soon.

It’s a lot of drama, and conjecture, and it’s made it difficult to gauge what will happen on the ice with this edition of the Red Wings.

Thursday was good, though.

“We did a good job in a lot of areas tonight,” Howard said. “We skated very hard.”

Year after year, the Red Wings have proven they are the one team in this town worth trusting. Yet, while they have made thrilling runs to reach the playoffs the last two seasons, this is also a franchise that has won just one playoff series the last three years.

In the process, they’ve gone from decided favorites to sort of underdogs.

About the Author

Pat Caputo has written as a beat writer and sports columnist for The Oakland Press since 1984 and blogs at http://patcaputo.blogspot.com/. Reach the author at pat.caputo@oakpress.com
or follow Pat on Twitter: @PatCaputo98.